"SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!" a middle aged woman of color shouts to the hundred or so students, parents, teachers, and children standing at the base of the capitol building in Sacramento, CA.
It is April 10, 2016, months before Trump's election. Months before the country turned from the years of the first black president to to the years of bashing the elite, electing the infamous outsider and claiming he would speak for the forgotten men and women.
This was back when I was a I was still a sophomore in college, attending the ACLU conference as a part of the Pitzer in Ontario academic field learning program. We had driven up in a large charter bus from southern California, forming study groups with names like "The Justice League". This was a weekend of Thai food and cafeteria sandwiches, of workshops and dancing and lobbying senator (...'s assistants).
I decided I couldn't be a politician, because the meetings looked long and mundane and I couldn't see a single person knitting in that whole auditorium of senators and congress people. I thought maybe I could get into political advocacy; after all, I was skilled at writing and research, and I wanted to make a difference. Visiting the state capitol, hearing bills being passed on a tiny fuzzy television projection of the auditorium, I had hope. I had dreams. I had plans.
Flash forward to June of 2018, and my sister is shushing me as I jokingly try to echo that 2016 sentiment across from Trump tower in New York City. It is late, and the street is closed, and I say in a hushed tone, "Show me what democracy looks like." Shayna grabs my arm and drags me quickly toward the next block.
This post is going up around July 4, 2018, the recognized day of American independence. In the past week alone, we have had another mass shooting (this time at a newspaper building), a conservative supreme court that's becoming dreadfully close to a reality, citizens shouting down government officials in public settings, and said government officials continuing their controversial policies while gaslighting the nation.
And yet.
I am privileged to live in this country, a country that took over a hundred years to give women the right to vote, who took even longer to give that right to people of color but a country that is, above all else, a democracy.
America is not perfect, but neither are we. America is a country founded on ideals but run by flawed humans. Power corrupts, sure, and many feel victimized and forgotten by a system so much stronger and larger than any one person.
Nevertheless, we persist. We persist through the good times and the bad, because freedom is never free. Freedom comes at a price many of us never will have to pay, and is a luxury nonetheless.
I do not believe that my generation is an entitled one, but we remain an ever connected generation disconnected from the simple things. The ability to read controversial books. My ability to write this blog post and know the worst that could come would be a spiteful Facebook comment. The rights of free speech, and American ideals, and public education, and an abundance of food and transportation and Western medicine.
America is flawed. America is deeply human. This state of our country is who we are, who we have become. Now, let's take the year ahead to make this country the one we hope and strive for it to be.
With love and hope,
Rivi
This post is going up around July 4, 2018, the recognized day of American independence. In the past week alone, we have had another mass shooting (this time at a newspaper building), a conservative supreme court that's becoming dreadfully close to a reality, citizens shouting down government officials in public settings, and said government officials continuing their controversial policies while gaslighting the nation.
And yet.
I am privileged to live in this country, a country that took over a hundred years to give women the right to vote, who took even longer to give that right to people of color but a country that is, above all else, a democracy.
America is not perfect, but neither are we. America is a country founded on ideals but run by flawed humans. Power corrupts, sure, and many feel victimized and forgotten by a system so much stronger and larger than any one person.
Nevertheless, we persist. We persist through the good times and the bad, because freedom is never free. Freedom comes at a price many of us never will have to pay, and is a luxury nonetheless.
I do not believe that my generation is an entitled one, but we remain an ever connected generation disconnected from the simple things. The ability to read controversial books. My ability to write this blog post and know the worst that could come would be a spiteful Facebook comment. The rights of free speech, and American ideals, and public education, and an abundance of food and transportation and Western medicine.
America is flawed. America is deeply human. This state of our country is who we are, who we have become. Now, let's take the year ahead to make this country the one we hope and strive for it to be.
With love and hope,
Rivi
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